


Graceful

by slightlytookish



Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Clumsiness, Crushes, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 12:38:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5456792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlytookish/pseuds/slightlytookish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connor McKinley never really considered himself exceptionally graceful, but years of dance lessons had left a mark. A great sense of balance, good posture, quick reflexes – Connor didn't realize how much he took it all for granted until the day Kevin Price walked into the mission hut and turned him into a clumsy oaf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Graceful

Connor McKinley never really considered himself exceptionally graceful, but years of dance lessons had left a mark. A great sense of balance, good posture, quick reflexes – Connor didn't realize how much he took it all for granted until the day Kevin Price walked into the mission hut and turned him into a clumsy oaf. 

To be fair, the trouble didn't start as soon as Elder Price arrived. Connor had managed to hold himself together that first day, at least. No, the trouble began a little later and even then it wasn't really Elder Price's fault – sure, he did grab Connor's face, but Connor was the one who leaned forward to kiss him even though Elder Price was covered in blood (and really, Connor might not have a lot of experience with kissing, but surely he should have sensed that it was neither the time nor the place for that?) and Connor was the one who ended up stumbling over his own feet when Price ran away instead of closing the distance between their lips. 

Even now he didn't know if Elder Price had noticed just how close they'd come to kissing – he was pretty distracted at the time, what with all the blood and having just witnessed a murder, and if Connor hadn't been so distracted himself by the impending progress report for the mission president and the sight of Elder Price's gorgeous face so close to his own, he's certain that he would have done his job properly as district leader and tried to comfort Elder Price in that moment, instead of attempting to kiss him. 

But whether or not he remembered Connor's lapse of good judgment wasn't the problem – the _real_ problem was that, in the days and weeks that followed, Connor became a walking disaster whenever Elder Price was around.

A glimpse of Elder Price sitting across the table at breakfast was enough for Connor to spill an entire bowl of cereal all over himself one morning. He managed to drop a huge stack of files that he was carrying into the living room when he noticed Price sitting on the couch, and then almost fell flat on his face as he tried to gather them up. And then on one memorable afternoon, the mere presence of Elder Price walking alongside him on the road to the village was enough to cause Connor to trip over his shoelaces, and then the tiniest of pebbles, and then absolutely nothing. All within fifteen minutes. 

That last stumble almost sent Connor sprawling headfirst into the dirt but someone caught him in time. And that someone, because Connor's life was growing more and more ridiculous by the day, was Elder Price. 

Of course it was.

"Are you all right, Elder McKinley?" Elder Price was looking at him with obvious concern, but Connor was most certainly _not_ all right – not standing as he was, half-slumped against Elder Price's chest with the warm, comfortable weight of Price's arms encircling him. He couldn't possibly be all right, not when he was clinging to Elder Price's biceps – who knew he had muscles like that hidden under his uniform shirt? – and certainly not when Elder Price's face was so close to his own. Too close, just like it had been that day. It would be so easy to lean a little forward and – no. Connor was dimly aware of Elder Thomas and Elder Cunningham watching them with wide eyes just over Price's shoulder, and he would not make a fool of himself again.

His legs felt as if they'd been turned into jelly but somehow he managed to haul himself to his feet so that Elder Price could let him go. If it took Connor just a second longer to relinquish his hold on Elder Price, well, his muscles really were that impressive.

"Yes, thank you, Elder Price," he said, smiling brightly. "I'm perfectly fine." And then, because he was still so flustered, he promptly lost all sense of direction and walked right into a tree.

His crush on Elder Price really had become a problem. 

*

"Don't worry about it too much," Elder Thomas said later, when they were home and Connor was belatedly pressing a cold compress to the painful bump on his forehead. Darn those low-hanging branches. "Elder Price probably just thinks you’re really clumsy. If there's… anything else… I don't think he realizes it."

He said it tentatively, as if they were both still pretending that Connor was actually good at turning it off and hadn't been completely obvious about his feelings for Elder Price practically since the first moment they met. And while Connor hoped that Price really was that oblivious, he wasn't so certain. He was pretty sure that Elder Price had been watching him more closely ever since that awful walk to the village. It might be Connor's own insecurities – it certainly felt like everyone was staring at him whenever he had one of his particularly uncoordinated moments – but he felt Elder Price's eyes on him more than anyone else's, and he just always seemed to be _there_. 

When a huge box of Books of Arnold was dropped off at the mission hut, Elder Price quickly took it from Connor and carried it inside. That could be dismissed easily enough as Price merely collecting his mission companion's mail, but it didn't explain why he practically charged out of his bedroom when the light went out in the hallway and replaced the lightbulb himself before Connor even had a chance to climb onto the stepstool. Nor did it explain why, when it was Connor's turn to make dinner and he needed a pot from the top shelf of the cabinet, Elder Price was the one who noticed and retrieved it for him unasked. 

It was flattering, and it was maddening, because Connor couldn't decide if Price was still trying to make up for his disastrous first week in Uganda by being extra helpful, or if he thought Connor was completely incompetent and would hurt himself by performing even the simplest of tasks. 

Although, given Connor's clumsiness in recent weeks, he supposed he wouldn't really blame Elder Price for thinking that.

*

The hole in the roof was fairly small, but once Connor knew it was there he couldn't stop thinking about it. It wasn't the possibility of a leak that worried him; it hadn't rained in almost two weeks, and he was more concerned about leaving a way for scorpions and safari ants and who knew what else to get into the mission hut, anyway. Nabulungi had warned them all about opening the windows, and leaving a hole in the roof seemed just as risky. 

Mafala loaned them some supplies and a ladder and cheerfully promised that it wouldn't be too difficult for them to patch it up. Connor had his doubts, especially when he and Elder Thomas got home and realized they only had one hammer between them. Still, one hammer was better than none, so while Elder Thomas went inside and tried to find another one Connor decided to go up to the roof and get a better look at what exactly they needed to fix. 

Luckily he was only about two feet off the ground when someone shouted, "Elder McKinley! No!"

Connor was startled enough to stumble, and suddenly Elder Price was right there, one hand on the ladder and the other on Connor's waist, steadying them both. Or at least, he probably thought he was steadying them. Feeling Elder Price's hand on his waist wasn't exactly something that Connor would ever consider calming.

"Elder Price, what do you think you're doing?" Connor demanded in his best district leader voice. It usually worked on people but apparently not on Price, who looked just as frantic as Connor felt.

"What do you think _you're_ doing?" he snapped right back. "You almost fell!"

"Because you startled me!" 

"Um, guys?" Elder Thomas said, finally emerging from the house. "I found another hammer."

He was looking at them oddly, and Elder Price seemed to remember that his hand was still on Connor's waist at the exact moment that Connor did. Price jerked it away and took a step back, looking embarrassed, and Connor hoped that everyone would pretend that the blush he felt creeping across his face was because of the heat and not anything else. 

"Thank you, Elder Thomas," he said, climbing down because he was beginning to feel a little ridiculous standing above the others. A look of undisguised relief crossed Elder Price's face as soon as he was on solid ground again, and Connor tried not to feel too offended. "And Elder Price, thank you for your concern but we have everything under control. There's just a small hole in the roof to repair; it's really not a big deal at all."

"I'll help you," Elder Price said immediately.

"You don't have to-"

"I want to," Elder Price said, flashing him the grin that never failed to give Connor butterflies in his stomach. "We'll finish more quickly with three people and I helped my dad fix the roof of our garage last year, so I know a bit about this stuff."

"That's a lot more than we know," Elder Thomas said, glancing uneasily at the roof. "But do you think it'll hold all of our weight?"

From the ground the roof certainly looked like a flimsy thing; Connor wasn't even sure if it would hold the weight of two people, now that he thought about it.

That was probably the worst sort of thought to have about a roof before climbing onto it, but Elder Price didn't seem very concerned. "It should be fine, but if you'd rather not go up there I don't mind taking your place," he said, because he was nothing if not persistent.

Connor and Elder Thomas exchanged a look, and he must have seen something in Connor's expression because his face suddenly brightened, as if Elder Price's suggestion was the best thing he'd heard in a long time. 

"That's really nice of you, Elder Price. Thanks!" he said, handing over the hammer and heading back into the house with a poorly-disguised grin. Connor was too surprised to do more than raise an eyebrow at his mission companion's quickly retreating back. So much for Rule 72. 

"Great!" Elder Price beamed at him. "Here, give me your backpack."

"I can carry it." 

"It'll be easier to climb up without it." 

He had a point, so Connor handed over his backpack of supplies before climbing up the ladder again – without any mishaps this time, even though Elder Price hovered around watching him like a hawk until he was safely perched on the roof before climbing up after him, backpack in tow.

"I would've carried it myself if I'd known you were going to do that," Connor said.

"What did you think I was going to do?"

"Throw it to me?" The mission hut was only one story, so it's not like it would have been that difficult of a throw.

Elder Price looked aghast. "So you could fall off the roof trying to catch it? No way. Now where's this thing we're supposed to fix?" 

"Over here," Connor said with a sigh. The roof was sturdier than it had appeared from below, and it didn't seem like it would collapse beneath them anytime soon. Elder Price's presence really did make the repairs go faster, and he hadn't been exaggerating when he said he knew a bit about patching up a hole in the roof. Working alongside him would have been really nice, actually, if Connor didn't feel so self-conscious. He kept waiting to do something ridiculous, to hammer his own thumb or to spill all the nails, or maybe even to tumble off the roof like Elder Price had feared. The fact that Elder Price kept glancing at him as if he expected something terrible to happen didn't exactly make Connor feel confident, either.

"You're quiet," Elder Price said after a while.

"Just trying not to brain myself with this hammer," Connor said moodily. When Elder Price looked at him in alarm, he almost laughed. "I'm kidding. Honestly, Elder, I think I should feel a bit insulted by how little faith you have in me."

"I have lots of faith in you!" Elder Price said and maybe it was because they were working in the sun but suddenly his cheeks looked much pinker than they had a moment before. "It's just, you're – well. You know."

Connor put down the hammer and folded his arms, glaring. "I'm _what_ , Elder Price?"

"Kind of… accident prone?" It was probably the kindest possible way of putting it and Connor felt his irritation begin to recede slightly, especially when Elder Price shrugged a shoulder and mumbled, "I just didn't want anything bad to happen to you."

Connor felt his heart clench, and maybe that was why (or maybe it was just because he was a sentimental, love-struck fool) he blurted, "I wasn't this clumsy before you came here."

The crushed look on Elder Price's face made him wish he hadn't said it. "What?" 

"It's not your fault," Connor rushed to explain. "You just – make me nervous, I guess." Elder Price was staring at him now, and Connor found that he had to look away after a moment. He busied himself with gathering up the nails they hadn't used yet, and he nearly dropped them all when Elder Price reached for his hand.

"Elder McKinley, would it make you nervous if I said I wanted to kiss you?" Price's voice was hesitant in a way that Connor had never heard him sound before but he sounded genuine, too, and Connor could feel another flush creeping up his neck. 

"Not if you really meant it." His heart was racing and he felt like he could hardly dare to breathe, or hope, or dream. "And you should call me Connor, if you want to kiss me."

At that Elder Price smiled, and Connor felt like he could breathe easily again. "Only if you call me Kevin," he said, and this time he was the one leaning towards Connor, and Connor just had to meet him halfway in a kiss. 

They were both a little tentative at first, but Elder Price's – Kevin's – lips were soft against his own and Connor had wanted this so, so much. He reached for Kevin, dropping the nails he'd been clutching in his hand, but the sound of them bouncing off the roof and raining onto the ground below barely registered in his mind. It was far from graceful but he didn't care, not when he was finally allowed to touch Kevin, to curl his hand around the back of Kevin's head and run his fingers through the short, soft hairs growing there. Not when Kevin was kissing him back and had one hand in Connor's hair and another on his jaw, and the kiss went on and on until they both had to pull away to catch their breath. 

"Hi," Kevin said, and he was smiling and his usually perfect hair was mussed and his eyes were shining, and Connor was sure that he looked exactly the same because he couldn't remember the last time he had been this happy. 

"Hi Kevin," he said, because he could do that now, before leaning in to steal another kiss, because he could do that, too.


End file.
